Hello friends,
TGIF! I am glad to be home, inside and out of the weather! It has been very windy and wet here and that is not my favourite kind of weather. Today though, while I was out food shopping, I was pushing my trolley back to the car and spotted a beautiful leaf lying on the ground. I thought about picking it up but then I thought, people would be thinking I was nuts, but then I thought who cares if they think I’m nuts, and I turned my trolley around and went back to pick it up. Here it is, isn’t it a beauty? It’s very large, bigger than my hand, and I probably should know what kind of tree it’s from but I don’t. It looks like a really big maple leaf to me but I don’t know where there are maple trees in that area. [EDIT 12.11.21 9pm: Well I think it’s a Sycamore leaf, there are plenty of Sycamore trees around here, so I should have remembered but it’s been a rough week. I checked and their leaves can be up to 7 inches in diameter and they turn yellow and brown in Autumn, and look like really big Maple leaves.]
today’s art . . .
Today’s art is therefore an art journal page featuring my beautiful leaf (btw I did wash it thoroughly when I got home). It’s my Day 11 piece for Art Every Day Month and for the current theme over on Art Journal Journey which is All kinds of Weather, and was chosen by this month’s lovely host, Chris from PearShapedCrafting. All this windy weather we’re having is the reason I found this beautiful leaf.
After being so careful with it, getting it home in one piece, washing it etc, I managed to tear it when applying the matte medium as it stuck to my hand! Covering it in matte medium also darkened the leaf quite a bit.
This quote has no author that I can find, but it is one that I like so it seemed like the right one to use on this page. I was worried about what people might think about me picking up leaves off the street but in the end I just let it go and picked up the leaf anyway, because I wanted it for this page, so who cares what other people think.
The page is very simple and didn’t take long to do, just my beautiful leaf taking centre stage – it nearly fills the whole page, it’s so big! To give you an idea of size, that page is 12.5 x 9.5 inches. The rest is acrylic ink in raw umber, turquoise and bronze.
If you missed any November AEDM posts so far – especially yesterday’s since I just linked it up today – check them out in the slider below.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, matte medium, big leaf, acrylic inks, white card, black pen
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – All Kinds of Weather November Challenge
Art Every Day Month – Day 12 
You might also like these November posts days 1-11 . . .
A beautiful autumn leaf , thank you for linking this inspiring page to Chris’s theme over at AJJ.
Yvonne
What a good point of autumn and letting things go. I love that idea. And the blue spots with this pretty leaf work so well together. Thanks for sharing with us at AJJ for Chris’ challenge. Happy new week. Hugs-Erika
I love yoru leaf, especially maple ones are very beautiful in fall. 🙂
It’s a fabulous page! I love the splashes of blue. I am now on a massive catch up, having had a very busy mid week. Thanks so much for a fantastic page for my theme at AJJ, hugs, Chrisx
It’s a gorgeous leaf and a beautiful page Elle!
Wow! This is so impressive. Just beautiful.
That is one HUGE leaf. It turned out beautiful, too. That may have been a simple page, but it turned out great. I have never worried about anyone noticing if I stop to pick something off the ground. One time I was at a craft store and one of the bouquets in a container outside had broken apart and spewed all over the parking lot. I stopped and picked up one of the flowers, and I didn’t care if anyone else saw or not. I knew it wasn’t theft because it was too far in the parking lot. Thanks for sharing this leaf with us at Art Journal Journey using Chris’s theme, too.